Kelly picks up 500th win as Bulldogs sweep Wildcats

Friday

But Friday night, with 38.5 seconds left to play, senior sub Andrew Reynolds grabbed an offensive rebound and scored, causing Kelly to throw his hands up in the air and grin.

It was the icing on the cake of a landmark night for the Trinity High School basketball coach, who picked up his 500th win with the Bulldogs. Trinity topped Eastern Randolph 65-41 in the Piedmont Athletic Conference opener for both teams, giving Kelly a 20-win average for his 25 seasons at the school.

"Andrew played as a freshman, but then he got hurt and didn’t play as a sophomore," Kelly said. "He didn’t come out his junior year. He was in my class and we got to talking — we developed a relationship. I told him he should come out for the team. He knew he wouldn’t get a lot of playing time, but he just wanted to be a member of the team. He brings it every day. Seeing him grab that offensive rebound was as enjoyable as a championship."

For such a big night, the crowd was typical of a Trinity basketball game — near-full stands and a vocal student section. In fact, some in attendance may not have known until the buzzer sounded and athletic director Robert Mitchell and principal Brad Phillips presented Kelly with a banner.

"We didn’t really advertise this much," he said. "We’ve been trying to downplay it with the kids. We were focusing more on it being our first conference game and you’ve got to win your home games in the conference."

Still, fans may have noticed some faces from the past in the stands — all of whom came down to shake Kelly’s hand after the banner ceremony.

"When we came in here in 1989, they had had 34 wins in 17 years," Kelly said. "We wanted to build something people could rally around. The kids bought into it and, once the parents saw I had their kids’ best interests in mind, they bought into it, too. Maybe two years have been difficult.

"It really is a family atmosphere. My son’s an assistant and he played for me. Mitchell played for me. Our jayvee coach played for me. I’m going to retire from teaching, but one thing I like about coaching is it does keep me in contact with young people. They keep me young at heart."

This year’s group is no different. Despite falling behind 8-0 early in Friday’s game, the team battled back, outscoring Eastern Randolph 17-6 in the third quarter to improve to 14-0 on the season.

"They wanted to win this for me," Kelly said. "They started flat because of that. We gave up four easy baskets. The good thing is, we didn’t fold.

"I’ve coached Jarrod (Rogers) and Daniel (Newcomer) for four years and they’re super kids. I coached both of their older brothers. Zach Brann and Alex McGavic are playing well. Austin Sexton is our hustle player. Every kid is fun to be around."

"I’m going to have to axe that pregame speech," Eastern Randolph coach Seth Baxter said. "The last five or six games, we’ve started slow and then played well in the second, third and fourth quarters. Tonight, we told them to have a fast start, which we did, but then we didn’t play anymore. We had too many turnovers. They were the better team.

"Congratulations to Coach Kelly. He keeps doing it and just gets better and better. I hate that we’re the team he did it against."

The night was a sweep for the Bulldogs as Trinity won the girls game 54-44. The first half went back-and-forth, but the Bulldogs jumped to a 13-point lead early in the third quarter. Eastern Randolph battled back to within three points with just over 2 1/2 minutes to play, but the Wildcats couldn’t come any closer.

"It’s assignment basketball," said Bulldogs coach Dana Conte, who was frustrated with his team’s first-half play. "We shot ourselves in the foot. We were getting all the looks we wanted, but we weren’t carrying out our assignments."

For Trinity (1-0, 4-10), Kaitlyn Cox came off the bench and scored 15 points, while Rachel Hunt had 12 points and Sage Earnhardt and Jordan Parker each added 11.

"We fouled way too much," said Eastern Randolph coach Luke Barker, noting THS’ 35 free throw attempts. "We had all of our injured players back and they were trying to toughen it out. They didn’t practice all week, though, so it was sloppy at times. The effort was there."

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